Last Days of Training=Drama at the Preschool

Thursday- Well we had to be at training at 8 again today and we had to practice the skit that we had to perform for the parents that night at parent orientation.  I was Safety Girl!  Woo-hoo!  After that we played some tag games that we could teach our kids, and then we started working on the tshirts and packets again.  After a little bit it was time for lunch, and then back to work on the packets and get ready.  We learned some more songs also during this time, and started shooting the video that was supposed to be played at parent orientation, but the editing program didn’t work so we couldn’t edit the video after we shot it.  Around 4:25 everything was set up and ready to go for parent orientation at 6:30, but parents were arriving at 6:00 to go ahead and pick up their tshirts and packets.  We were told to go get ready cause we had to wear our staff shirts and jeans.  We got back around 4:45 and had subway before then got ready for orientation.  Everything went super smoothly, and a lot of the parents said it went much better than years previous so that’s so exciting!! After that we all went to go get ice cream at only the best place ever for ice cream, Creole Creamery!  It was AWESOME.  

Friday- LAST DAY OF TRAINING!  It started at 8.  We had to to put all of the chairs up from the orientation and then we had our devotion.  After that we started the wonderful CPR training.  I am now officially certified, as well at First Aid certified.  That is pretty much all we did, but it took all day.  We did work on stuff we needed for week one with our groups for a little bit.  After training we had staff night!  We went to a place called Juan’s Flying Burrito and it totally had the best guacamole ever!  After that we went to Sucre which is the most delicious dessert ever! They have a bunch of different things to get, but it was really really good! After that everybody was super super tired and then we all got to sleep in Saturday! Yay!   Oh I forgot about the stuff that happened Friday!  On our way to Sucre we saw like a police chase that was like super scary close to us.  Now for the scariest part of the day we went into lockdown right before lunch.  We found out that there was a guy running from a shooter that jumped the fence and got onto campus and ran into the preschool!  He was covered in blood, and the preschool had get all of the children back away from the windows.  It was very terrifying, but everything was okay because the actually shooter didn’t actually come onto campus.  That is all hear-say though so remember that.  That was terrifying to not know exactly what is going on and just hearing a shooter was on campus which wasn’t really true.  Anyways that was enough excitement to last me all summer!  

Team Blue

Okay so let’s start with Tuesday.  Tuesday we spent most of our time with a behavior aide person telling us about different ways to discipline, the types of parenting you will see, how to keep children on tasks, autism, and ADHD.  Pretty much all of this was just like a review for some of my classes.  I felt so smart listening to Ms. Kathy talk.  Her specialty is preschool so I automatically loved her and the way she taught.  After that which took most of the day, we found out what age groups and who our co-councilors are.  I am officially going to be working with “Group 5”, or “Team Blue”, or 5th graders.  I am kind of nervous since the only kids I work with these days are early childhood which basically means birth-8 years old.  I normally stay to the younger side though unless I am teaching DNOW which then normally means junior high and then even that is just girls.  I don’t think I am not going to be able to handle it or anything crazy like that, and I know that God has a reason for everything.  Bri is my co-councilor and I think we are going to have a lot of fun together, and with the kids.  We got done around 5:00, and then at 6:00 me, Jessica U., Becca, and Hannah went to eat at Camellia Grill which was PHENOMENAL!!   We then went down to the quarter and had the wonderful Cafe de Monde.  It is definitely a place you must visit when coming to NOLA.  After some time just walking around we came back to campus and went to bed.  

Now to today. (Wednesday) Today we got to training and went straight to curriculum stuff after devotion.  Bri and I planned out the first two weeks for the study.  The them for the camp is “Heros.”  The first 5 weeks are Old Testament heros, and then the last 5 weeks are talking about how God/Jesus is our main hero.  Bri and I have some pretty awesome ideas of what to do with “Team Blue” and I will most definitely be posting pictures of a lot of stuff once we get started.  After that Dr. T and Dr. Stringer talked to us about kids and salvation, but we didn’t get far before the next speaker got there to talk about problem-solving with kids.  Her name was Leslie, and she was very nice.  After that we got a list of our kids, and had to call all of the parents to remind them about parent orientation tomorrow night.  I have one boy and he is autistic and his mom was telling me all about how much he loves coming to camp every year and has already been talking about it since Christmas.  I am thrilled and can’t wait to meet all of my kids.  After that it was around 6 and at 6:30 we ordered pizza and started putting together the kids teachers, and parent packets.  We were there until 9:00!!! I got back to my dorm around 9:30, and now I am doing this.  I am finally watching tv since I’ve been here and I watched House Hunters, and now How I Met Your Mother, and some Good Luck Charlie.  Oh, btw, I HATE that Scotty won.  He makes me so mad, and angry, and I hate the way he sings, SO MUCH!  Okay back to NOLA, tomorrow we have to be there at 8 instead of 9, and I am super tired so I am going to bed very soon!  Tomorrow is supposed to be the most stressful day of all summer so this should be fun...prayers are welcome!

First Day

So I am officially in New Orleans!!  I was here for the weekend with the family and we went down to the french quarter and walked around!  It was really fun.  Today was the first day of camp though and we had orientation.  Dr. T is amazing and I will be talking about her a lot for the rest of the summer.  She is the director of the preK camp.  She is in love with orphans, and is an UA graduate!  Roll Tide, y'all.  Her roommate/bff is Dr. Stringer who is the camp coordinator which means she is all of our bosses.  Krista is the nicest person in the WORLD.  She is the director of the camp I am working with is the kids.    I love it!  All we did today is learn awesome games, and songs, and toured the campus!  There is a LifeWay in the student center! OMG!  Becca, Jessica (my roommate), and Hannah all live in the dorm as well.  Hannah is from Montgomery and knows everybody from BTW apparently.  I didn't ask about Bethany or anything...yet.  Hannah, Jessica, and I are all state missionaries and are all from Alabama.  Roll Tide.  I will attempt to blog a whole lot more once more things start happening, but for now life is awesome, and I was always meant to be a camp staffer.

OMG I forgot!!  There is a freaking two-story Target here.  AMAZING.

NOLA

Okay let's forget I ever posted anything before this.  IT'S ALMOST NEW ORLEANS TIME!!!!!!  I am in love with camps, and cannot wait to be there being a part of one.  I am in the midst of getting fully prepared to make my way to Louisiana. Today I went shopping all day looking for space bags!  It was truly a very difficult task, but Target is the place!! Who doesn't love Target?!  I really cannot get over that the time is almost here for me to go to NOLA for the entire summer.  That's such a long time doing something that I love doing.  3 days till I am in NOLA for the summer.  Let the countdown begin, y'all!